


The Monsters Children Fear

by Eirenne Saijima (ladypoetess)



Category: Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 22:15:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1099214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladypoetess/pseuds/Eirenne%20Saijima
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mazrim Taim has relinquished the title of Dragon Reborn to the rightful person, but he finds that it does not mean he is no longer considered a monster by those he is helping to save.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Monsters Children Fear

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tedronai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tedronai/gifts).



> I originally signed up for Yuletide to make sure Tremaile got a Taim fic. We were not matched up, but I held to that wish, and here is a Taim fic that he did not have to write. :)

Mazrim Taim looked around the farm village and sighed.  
  
 _Train men; train them fast and make them weapons, the Lord Dragon said. He scarcely seems to notice or care what I do, but I would be at the right hand of the Dragon Reborn, and so I do as bidden._ Taim sniffed, folding his arms behind his back as he surveyed the square in the center of the little village. It was a small place with just a few buildings clustered together amidst the larger, more sprawling land of the farms themselves. There was the ringing of a blacksmith's hammer coming from the back of one of the buildings, a small group of women on the steps of another building that Taim supposed was the local wise woman's house, and one slightly larger building that looked to be an inn, however laughable it might be that someone would travel through here on the way to anywhere. Besides a small stable that would hold perhaps 8 animals, that was all there was to this 'village' he had brought his Asha'man to.  
  
Three of the Dedicated were out, rounding up men from the fields to come and speak to Taim, while two full Asha'man stood as an honor guard behind him. The same two Asha'man had scouted this flyspeck village out the week prior and had left him reports that there were at least 2 or 3 men here they suspected of being capable of channeling. Which meant Taim had to make the trip here, himself, to test them and take them back to the Black Tower for training, if they would go. The whole process was tedious and circumspect, owing to the Lord Dragon's other command: avoid Aes Sedai. Without that prohibition, Taim knew he could make much faster work of this, but again, as the Lord Dragon commands... No matter. The Lord Dragon had commanded it, and Taim would obey, however much he disagreed with the decision. He was not the one who was going to be asked to die to save the fate of the world and the Wheel, and so he had ceded the rights, along with the responsibilities, of bearing the name of the monster children frighten each other with. And so Taim waited calmly, if not precisely patiently, for the Dedicated to bring the prospective Soldiers to him for testing.  
  
The gaggle of women clusted on the steps kept looking over at Taim and his guard, a mix of fear and loathing on their faces, but no other signs of hostility, which meant the Asha'man behind him had done their jobs adequately when scouting out potential recruits without raising a hue and cry in the process. With the need for discretion, each man would need to be spoken to privately, apart from wives and parents and friends. To approach men in a group, or worse, an entire village, meant risking a mob that would steal the wits from even the most level-headed man.  
  
After what seemed an interminable stretch of time, Taim saw the Dedicated, in their black coats and sword pins, approaching the village center with two farmers at their sides. One of the Dedicated peeled off from the group and approached the building where the blacksmith's hammer was ringing. Moments later, the ringing stopped and a hush fell over the village entire. When the third Dedicated emerged from behind the building again, the blacksmith with his soot-blackened apron and wide, muscular shoulders was walking behind him. _At last, we can get this over with and I can return to the Tower._ Taim shifted and unfolded his arms, steepling his fingers before him.  
  
"Greetings, gentlemen. You are all aware of who I am and why I am here, yes?" Taim looked at each of the three in turn, seeing nods of assent from each before continuing. "Good. Then we can get on with the process."  
  
One of the farmers, looking pale and a bit nervous, stepped forward when prompted by the Dedicated at his side and bowed a little. "M'lord, I'm called Davin Lac."  
  
"My name is Taim." came the clipped reply. "Now, Davin, I will channel a flame and you will stare into it. Let go of all else; only the flame exists."  
  
Taim seized hold of _saidin_ , the slick foulness of the taint making him feel as if he needed a bath. Ignoring that, he wove a thin tendril of fire and a flame sprung into life in mid-air. "Focus. Only the flame exists."  
  
Several long minutes later, Taim felt a resonance in the man. It was faint, meaning Davin was unlikely to be exceptionally strong in the power, but it was there. Taim nodded to the Dedicated behind Davin, and then let the flame wink out. "You can learn. You will accompany us?"  
  
At Davin's wondering nod, Taim dismissed him from thought and turned to the next man. "And you are?"  
  
"I'm Kaln Morran." was the answer from a man who seemed a little sleepy, a little distracted.  
  
"You were paying attention before, Kaln?" At the man's nod, Taim simply resummoned the flame and began the process anew. And then once more as the blacksmith came forward and gave his name as Nuka Aln.  
  
All three men could learn to channel, and though he did not say so, Taim suspected that the blacksmith had already been doing so for some time, however unaware of it he was. The men gathered up their families and tossed saddlebags that had been packed in preparation over their shoulders, and not a moment too soon, in Taim's opinion. The faster he could be done at this backwater mudspot-on-the-road, now that it held nothing more of interest to him, the more content Taim would be. So impatient was he to be gone from the village, and the group of staring women who watched his every move, that he did not bother with walking back to the stand of trees they had used to Travel in. Indeed, Taim had channeled enough in the one spot where he tested the men to know the area, and he simply channeled to make the vertical slash of light appear, twisting and opening into a gateway back to the grounds of the Black Tower.  
  
Taim stepped through first, then turned and looked back through the gateway into the little mudspot village as the new recruits were ushered through by the Dedicated who were still herding them. The faces of the women who had silently watched the testing from their cluster on the stairs were still fixed on him. _I thought myself the monster who might save the world,_ Taim thought wryly. _Instead, I remain one of many monsters, yet in charge of making more to unleash upon the world. Rand al'Thor can have the mantle of the Dragon Reborn, the monster to be feared above all others. I am content - for now - with being the power at the right hand of the Dragon, as one monster among many has fewer dangers to avoid than the one with targets painted on his body._  
  
As the two Asha'man guards came last through the gateway, Taim had an almost smile on his lips as he bowed slightly, mockingly, to the women who still watched him. As he straightened, the gateway closed and winked out.


End file.
